RockerBoy Baby

by Dana Carlin
(Pennsylvania)

I wanted to make a quilt for my son that would be unique, fun, and vibrant. I was sick of seeing sports-themed items and teddy bears for boys. My family has never been into sports, and I am sure that goes for many families. So I made it my mission to find prints that would still be boy-ish, but show the kinds of things that we're into.

I immediately fell in love with these colors- dark brown, bright blue, teal, and a couple awesome shades of green. My son and I both love music, so the guitar prints were perfect. I think every boy goes through a dinosaur phase - so the dinosaur print (towards the bottom) was a fun addition.

I love polkadots, so I put that in there so he would have a piece of me (sappy, I know). The peace-sign hands represent the importance of peace and love as a way of resolving things, which is very important to my family. The camo is for my youngest brother, who is my son's favorite uncle (kind of an inside-joke because my brother always wears these tattered camo pajama pants).

I didn't use a pattern for this quilt. I just cut strips and sewed them together in an order that looked/felt right to me. My picture doesn't show the back, but it's one big piece of fabric with stripes in coordinating colors. (I found a duvet from Ikea and cut it to use the fabric.) I used a very dark brown thread to "stitch in the ditches".

I used 80% cotton batting so that it would shrink a tiny bit when washed, to give it a more comfy look. Finally, I used a dark brown fabric to do the binding. It ended up being 46.5" x 34.5". This is the second quilt I ever made, and so far it's my favorite!